Inside Cloud (Mar 6th, 2018)

The Department of Defense has reduced the scope and price tag of a contract it awarded to an Amazon Web Services partner last month. REAN Cloud won the $950 million contract to provide cloud computing services to the DoD. But the Pentagon came under intense criticism from AWS competitors and those concerned about the cloud company's significant stake in government projects. The contract was reduced to $65 million and will be limited to U.S. Transportation Command instead of the entire DoD. — WASHPOST

Microsoft plans to integrate its hybrid cloud platform Azure Stack with Azure Government. Azure Stack allows agencies to run Microsoft's cloud services on their private servers. Tom Keane, Azure's head of global infrastructure said the new system was created for agencies that need secure services but may not be on site, such as a foreign embassy or military operation. "Quite literally we’ve designed Azure Stack with the scenario of a submarine in mind," Keane told Reuters. The move, which will go into effect later this year, comes as Microsoft seeks to compete with Amazon for public-sector clients.— TECHCRUNCH

Google Cloud on Monday detailed its expansion into in the health care sector. The company is introducing a new Cloud Healthcare API, more HIPAA-compliant products and new partnerships. The API is designed to help health care organizations manage a variety of data types, while also expanding products that are HIPAA-compliant, including the Google App Engine and Cloud Machine Learning Engine. — ZDNET

Amazon has purchased GameSparks, a live operations company, to assist game developers. Amazon will offer cloud services for developers that compete with Microsoft. Rumors of the acquisition surfaced last summer, but GameSparks and Amazon did not confirm the deal until Monday. Amazon reportedly purchased the company for $10 million, but no terms were officially disclosed. GameSparks allows game developers to build leaderboards and other features into games that can all be managed in the cloud. — TECHCRUNCH

The Department of Defense has reduced the scope and price tag of a contract it awarded to an Amazon Web Services partner last month. REAN Cloud won the $950 million contract to provide cloud computing services to the DoD. But the Pentagon came under intense criticism from AWS competitors and those concerned about the cloud company's significant stake in government projects. The contract was reduced to $65 million and will be limited to U.S. Transportation Command instead of the entire DoD. — WASHPOST